Published: Sep 28, 2015, 01:05 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 28, 2015, 01:41 PM (IST)
In spite of a stress fracture ruling 22-year old Pat Cummins out of Australia’s upcoming tour of Bangladesh and for a chunk of the 2015-16 summer Cricket Australia’s (CA) Executive General Manager of team performance Pat Howard says that he has full faith in Cummins returning to full fitness ahead of the World T20 2016, scheduled to be played in India. “We know players who are under 24, 25 [years old] are at risk [of back injuries],” Howard said . “And the faster you are the higher the risk. If he ticked along at 130kph he’d be playing all the time, but he bowls a lot quicker than that and puts his body under some great stress to do so,” he added. READ: Pat Cummins unwilling to compromise pace to curb injuries
“I have a massive amount of faith in this bloke being able to get back. His next goal is the World T20 in India at the back end of the summer,” insisted Howard. Cummins has had three stress fractures in the last four years but he initially burst into the scene when he picked up six wickets in the second innings of the Johannesburg Test four years ago, which Australia won by a couple of wickets. But his injuries over the last few years have given people the perceptions that he is injury prone, according to cricket.com.au.
“He’s worked really hard, we kept him to white ball cricket, now he’s played for a long time,” said Howard. “People easily forget he’s been playing for so long. He was fantastic in that one-day series in England after the Ashes and has had a really good run with injury,” he added. READ: Craig McDermott: Disappointing Pat Cummins got injured
Howard pointed to Mitchell Starc, saying that he has been extremely fit for the entire year. “Starc has bowled more than anyone in world in the past 12 months,” Howard said. “He’s had his issues in the past but he’s hit that 25-year-old age barrier now.”
